Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/124

112 should have been thus early cut off, and that its rich promise of fruit should have been blighted before time and experience had matured it. It has been the case in all countries and in all times, but perhaps the modern educated native of India is peculiarly exposed to the danger. The premature development of both mind and body does not seem to be accompanied by that physical health which can alone make great mental cultivation really safe, and in too many cases the bodily frame is worn out in a few years, and hopes of future achievements are buried in an early grave. The danger, no doubt, is increased for those who go to England or America, and the damp cold of these countries has cost us more than one life that seemed destined to play a noble part in the work of regenerating Indian society. Yet, perhaps, as we mourn these early deaths, these gifted women taken from us, as we think, all too soon, we may be at fault, and that for them as well as for their country the poets words, may be true—